Success is the journey – not the destination – or something like that.
Enjoy every milestone. Learn from every failure. Rise from every fall.
Friction polishes the diamond, or so they say.
I am not where I want to be yet; but I am oh so very far from where I started.
Are we there yet? Probably not. Just keep swimming my good peeps.
As always, make champion choices,
The Healthy Habit Lady
Are you obsessed with the scale? You do realize that the number on a scale is really just one piece of data regarding your overall well being, right? Whew, good. Just checkin’. If you KNOW you have an unhealthy relationship with the scale, then you might consider putting your weighing device in jail. Yep, scale jail. I highly recommend it. Just for a while, though. Not forever.
Do you own a measuring tape? If not, get one. Have you been to the doctor lately to know your numbers? If not, go. You do know your numbers, right? Numbers like blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, iron, vitamin deficiencies, etc. Yes, I promise you all of that is part of data, important data. This is also a piece of the puzzle to your overall health.
How long can you hold a plank? How many push-ups can you do? How many sit-ups? How much can you bench press? How fast can you walk/run a mile? How many flights of stairs can you climb without dwindling into a puddle of exhaustion? How many laps can you swim? These are also important numbers. This is also part of your data. Do these numbers change? Do you show improvement? I dare you to find out.
How many glasses of water did you drink yesterday? How many servings of fruits and vegetables did you eat this week? How many grams of protein are you eating on a regular basis? How much alcohol do you drink? How many grams of sugar are you consuming each day? These are also very important numbers. More data. Am I annoying you yet? If you’ve read this far, hopefully you see my point.
You, my dear, are so much more than a number on a scale or the size of your jeans. How do you feel? How do you look? Could you catch your child if they ran off into the highway? Could you pull a kid out of a ditch if needed? How do you sleep at night? How many medications are you taking? Can you sit on the floor and get up without help?
So how do you measure success? That is up to you. What are your goals? Do you have any goals? If not, get ya some ! I double dog dare ya.
As always, make champion choices,
The Healthy Habit Lady
I sleep pretty good these days, despite the evils of menopause.
Have you moved your body today? Did you break a sweat 💦?? Lord knows, I did. Truth be told, though, I was not excited about getting outside. It’s 90 degrees here today, and humid. My leg hurts and is bothering me. I really wanted to be lazy and take a nap. I did not do that. I decided to go for a long walk outside. Trust me, the walk served me well.
This is me, no makeup, no filters. There is nothing in my hair but the wind. I am not wearing any jewelry. However; I AM wearing deodorant! So, this is at me nearly age 50. This is me ‘as is’, take it or leave it. I make no apologies for my selfies. I refuse to water down my message. Take care of your bodies my good people, it’s the only skin you’ll ever live in. Consider this healthy habit tip #914: It’s okay to be uncomfortable.
As always, make champion choices,
The Healthy Habit Lady
Recently, as I was packing up boxes of books for my upcoming move, I found several of my old handwritten journals. My teenage son was fascinated to see so many books in my handwriting. So, just for fun, I picked a random page to read … the picture below is where I landed. At this time of this entry, I was very overweight and working as a Training Director in Richmond, VA. ~ in the midst of hiring new staff. Meanwhile; I often wrote about wanting to lose weight and changing my habits or how I simply MUST exercise. I would get motivated, but it was fleeting. I would start and stop, over and over again. I often became paralyzed by analysis paralysis in my overly eager desire to plan every detail, to ‘get ready’ to make a change. Yet change never happened, and if it did, it did not last. Simply put, I failed dozens of ways before I ever achieved success in weight loss.
So what changed? My mindset. My focus. Instead of trying to change my whole life on the proverbial ‘Monday’ that never comes, I focused on just changing one bad habit, just one thing. Once I replaced a bad habit with a better habit, I moved on to the next challenge. The very first thing I did was give up Mt. Dew because I was drinking it like water and I knew it was terrible for my body. I didn’t worry about my nutrition or my exercise routine, counting calories or any of that, I just focused on giving up Mt. Dew and drinking water.
I often tell people I lost 175 pounds 5 pounds at a time. Seriously, I only focused on five pound goals. Now I am in maintenance mode and have been for over five years. Are my habits perfect? Of course not. Do I have room for improvement? Always. Do I have saggy skin and stretch marks in places? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. To God be the glory for this marvelous mess of a temple that I enjoy.
Now while I’ve been a bit stressed and in transition, preparing for the move and selling my home, shifting my career, etc. ~ I think it is important to recognize when the good Lord sends us love notes of light. Even when those notes are in your very own handwriting.
As always, make champion choices,
The Healthy Habit Lady
I created a photography challenge for myself, and a few friends are participating. Today’s category is ‘comfort’. Taking a picture for this challenge inspired a whole domino effect chain reaction type sequence of thoughts, which ran me down a rabbit hole. Surely you have had similar happen to you at some point.
My first thought was, menopause is a bully. I realize I am getting off easy in many respects of menopause, but nonetheless I do not enjoy hot flashes. Not even a little bit. As I searched my brain for inspiration to take a picture of ‘comfort’, I landed on the idea of a fan. My mind was spinning about creativity and photography but my body was screaming ‘go jump in ice’. Not really; but you get the vivid idea. SO I played around with my phone and selfies, with a fan, and the picture below is my result. You may not even be able to tell it is a fan in the photo; but it is and it was turned on. I was allowing myself a momentary pause from my tasks to cool off and feel some comfort.
Now back to the rabbit hole. Comfort is an amazing thing. Everybody likes to be comfortable, yes? I do enjoy air conditioning, no lie. I enjoy indoor plumbing as well. We all have modern day comforts that make our lifestyles more pleasant. Some things we could live without, some would perhaps present a hardship. Right now, my dryer is broken. This is NOT fun. However; it has caused me to get out of my routine and as I’ve done that, growth has occurred.
My point is this. I know it sounds cliche, but life exists outside of your comfort zone. There is no growth in your comfort zone. I often tell my kids that they are not entitled to be comfortable 100% of the time. I usually find myself spouting off those words as they are fighting over the A/C vents in the minivan.
I dare you to get uncomfortable. Do something different. If you are sleepwalking through life, stop that. Wake up. Shake things up. Just imagine all of the amazing growth, lessons and rude awakenings that exist outside your cozy space.
As always, make champion choices,
The Healthy Habit Lady
